Ebb Tide

About ten minutes later, a silver-white Angel's Wings pulled up in front of No. 21 Lincheng Estate.

Skinny jeans, a silver-white T-shirt, and the limited-edition Magic Sound Headphones Tang Yu had not seen in a long time over her ears.

"Help me carry the box down!" Meng Xuanxuan took off her headphones and hung them around her neck, then pointed at Angel's Wings' trunk as she spoke to Tang Yu.

Hearing that, Tang Yu curled his lips, feeling rather speechless. She had a gene count over 90, yet she still needed his help with such a trivial matter?

"What, you're unwilling to do a little favor for your senior sister?" For some reason, seeing Tang Yu at a loss made Meng Xuanxuan inexplicably happy. Before he could refuse, she cut off what he was about to say.

Sure enough, Tang Yu had intended to refuse, but the moment he heard her words, he wilted. Somewhat unwillingly, he helped Meng Xuanxuan carry down the case containing her mech and placed it on his secondhand pickup truck.

"Huh? You broke through?" Tang Yu suddenly gave a soft cry. Looking her over more carefully, he realized Meng Xuanxuan's entire temperament had changed greatly. It was a change from the inside out, a complete change down to her bones, something that only occurred when a person's gene count underwent a major transformation.

"Hehe, you noticed!" Meng Xuanxuan giggled. "I originally didn't want to break through so quickly, but I was in a hurry to enter Ruins City. If I didn't break through, I probably wouldn't be able to stay inside for long, so I used a gene enhancement potion!"

Meng Xuanxuan was telling the truth. Ordinary people definitely would not be able to endure staying inside a mech for three to five days straight, especially in an environment as harsh as Ruins City.

"Tsk, tsk, rich people really are different. A gene enhancement potion—I still can't afford one even now!" Tang Yu did not think much of Meng Xuanxuan's words. He had simply never encountered a gene enhancement potion before and was genuinely curious about it.

"Do you have to mock me like that? Yes, you didn't use a gene potion. You're amazing, all right?" Meng Xuanxuan said irritably. This kid was too clueless. It would have been one thing if he did not praise her, but he actually dared to mock her.

Tang Yu had not meant it that way. He had merely been lamenting, but Meng Xuanxuan misunderstood. Fortunately, she was not one to hold grudges. The next moment, she changed the subject so Tang Yu would not ruin her mood.

"By the way, has that ex of yours contacted you these past few days?"

"What ex?" Tang Yu did not understand what Meng Xuanxuan meant at first. Only after he thought about it did he realize what she was referring to.

"Linlin and I are just ordinary friends. Don't misunderstand."

Meng Xuanxuan responded to Tang Yu's words with a cold snort. "Hmph! Ordinary friends? You may think so, but she probably doesn't!"

Tang Yu was displeased now. "If you came here to argue, then you can go back."

Sure enough, the moment Tang Yu said that, Meng Xuanxuan was left speechless.

"All right, all right, I was just teasing you. Do you have to get so angry?" After spending some time with him, Meng Xuanxuan had come to understand what kind of person Tang Yu was. She did not want to argue over this matter, so she softened her tone.

Seeing Meng Xuanxuan back down, Tang Yu found it hard to say anything more. "Are we leaving now?"

"Don't rush me. Let me put my car in your garage first, or are you going to pay me if it gets stolen?" Meng Xuanxuan rolled her eyes at Tang Yu and said irritably.

By the time Tang Yu and Meng Xuanxuan drove to the front of Ruins City, it was already past noon. After finding a secluded place to park, Tang Yu immediately got out and took out the components of his Wolverine mech one by one, then put them on.

"Hurry up. We might end up spending the night inside." Seeing that Meng Xuanxuan still was not moving, Tang Yu could not help curling his lips.

Hearing Tang Yu say that, Meng Xuanxuan clapped her hands and jumped out of the car. "What's the rush? It's not dark yet!" After putting away her headphones in the car, Meng Xuanxuan opened the case containing her mech and put it on.

"You're a girl, yet you wear such a huge mech. What kind of look is that?" Tang Yu's mech stood just about two meters tall after he put it on, but Meng Xuanxuan was nearly half a head taller than him.

"I like it!" Hearing Tang Yu mock her, Meng Xuanxuan gave a light snort. She grabbed a serrated sword and a miniature laser gun, then headed into Ruins City. Tang Yu could only follow.

Not long after entering the outskirts of Ruins City, Tang Yu and Meng Xuanxuan both felt that something was wrong. The water in the swamp had nearly dried up. This was only the outskirts of Ruins City, but it was far too quiet. Not a single mutant creature was in sight. Tang Yu had not even seen one of the most common three-headed dogs.

"Something's strange." Meng Xuanxuan frowned as she surveyed their surroundings. Even without her saying it, Tang Yu could sense it too.

"The tide has gone out!" After observing for a while, Tang Yu came to a conclusion. But it was mid-June, not the season for low tide at all!

Meng Xuanxuan froze when she heard him. "I know what it is!"

"You know?" From the way Meng Xuanxuan spoke, she seemed to know something.

"You don't know?" Meng Xuanxuan froze again at Tang Yu's question. Then, as though she had remembered something, she continued, "Moon Base has many teleportation arrays. If they are activated too many times, they can trigger artificial solar and lunar tides. This should be what's happening now!"

"So that's it!"

"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!" Suddenly, a series of hissing sounds came from nearby, and both Tang Yu and Meng Xuanxuan stopped in their tracks.

"What's that sound? It's so creepy!" Even though she was wearing a mech, Meng Xuanxuan still felt uncomfortable when she heard it.

"Don't worry. That's the sound of a colorless python flicking its tongue. We're wearing mechs, so it can't do anything to us!"

Though he said that, Tang Yu clenched his fists behind his back and extended the cold gleaming blades along both his arms.

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

Just as the two of them went around a pond, intending to avoid the colorless python, several barks rang out. A few three-headed dogs were fighting a colorless python. In its death throes, the python lunged and bit one three-headed dog in the neck, drawing blood at once. The colorless python's fangs were six or seven centimeters long and carried a neuroparalytic toxin. Though it was not fatal, this three-headed dog was clearly done for.

Seeing this, Meng Xuanxuan could not help frowning. Clearly, she had not seen many such bloody scenes.

"Scared? Should we go back?" Seeing Meng Xuanxuan frown, Tang Yu teased her. Yet his words only provoked her further.

"Who said I'm scared? Stop talking and hurry up..."

"Screech!"

Before Meng Xuanxuan could finish the word "up," a piercing cry came from the sky. A two-headed falcon circled high above, watching the three-headed dogs menacingly. It had clearly set its sights on their prey.

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

Hearing the falcon's shrill cry, the three-headed dogs barked wildly at the sky, clearly warning the two-headed falcon.

Tang Yu had a feeling that these three-headed dogs and that two-headed falcon were bound to have a fierce battle. It was better to avoid them early and see if they could pick up some leftovers on the way back.

"Let's go!"

The deeper they went, the more green moss covered the area. Crumbling buildings had fallen into the water, and schools upon schools of four-legged fish swam beneath the surface, making their scalps tingle. Even an expert with a gene count over 100 would be devoured clean by these swarms of four-legged fish if they could not gain leverage in the water, leaving not even bones behind.

"Past this broken bridge is where corpse mutants often appear. I've never gone in there myself. Are you sure you want to enter?" Tang Yu looked at the collapsed, severed bridge ahead and asked Meng Xuanxuan once again.

"Is this Huangpu River Bridge?" Meng Xuanxuan ignored Tang Yu's question and asked this instead.

Hearing that, Tang Yu felt somewhat emotional as well. Several hundred years had passed. The prosperity of old had long become a fleeting memory, leaving behind only broken walls and ruins as far as the eye could see.

The bridge had broken apart. To cross, they had to wade through the water, which was packed densely with four-legged fish. These fish were mutations of the piranhas from the early days before the Great Cataclysm, many times more vicious than the piranhas of that era. Even wearing a mech, Tang Yu did not dare remain in the water for even a moment, or his mech might be damaged.

"Run across!" Tang Yu reminded Meng Xuanxuan before sprinting ahead first. With a fierce leap, he even shattered the reinforced concrete beneath his feet. This jump carried Tang Yu at least thirty meters, as high as two or three stories.

Boom!

With a dull thud, Tang Yu rolled across the ground several times, bleeding off the immense force of his landing momentum. Wearing the C-rank Wolverine mech, he rose steadily to his feet. He extended a pair of claws toward Meng Xuanxuan.

In Meng Xuanxuan's eyes, Tang Yu's action was nothing but a provocation.

"Hmph!"

Meng Xuanxuan gave a delicate snort. Wearing the Johnson mech, which stood a full 2.2 or 2.3 meters tall, her figure did not seem cumbersome at all. Instead, she looked exceptionally light and nimble. When she was about half a meter from the edge of the broken bridge, she suddenly pushed off. Her entire body soared into the air, where she performed two consecutive flips before landing steadily on the ground. The movement flowed as smoothly as water, far better than Tang Yu's!

"She's that good?" Even Tang Yu stared in stunned disbelief. This girl was far too impressive. It was practically a slap in the face.

"Hmph! Of course. So? I'm much better than you, right?" Tang Yu had needed several rolls before he could stand up. Though he had not looked too pathetic, he was indeed far inferior to Meng Xuanxuan.

Hearing Meng Xuanxuan say that, Tang Yu merely curled his lips and said nothing. After spending more time with her, he had learned one thing: arguing with women was an extremely unwise thing to do. So he wisely kept quiet.